To keep track what I have been up to and my thoughts on issues important to me.

Saturday, December 17, 2011

knitted ear warmers

Miss T asked Sister Suzy if I could crochet her an ear warmer/headband. I said, sure, but get me some pictures. I got two links, this one from busyinbrooklyn and this one from Red Heart. After reviewing the patterns I tried to get Sister Suzy to learn to crochet them. They are that simple. She wasn't receptive. It seems that crocheting, knitting, and sewing are 'old lady' skills. So I decided if I was going to have to make them they would be knitted because knitting is so much easier on the hands for me.

First up was this one.

The body of the ear warmer was knit from Red Heart Designer Sport in Cocoa. I cast on 20 stitches and knitted 20 inches of garter stitch and tried to graft the two ends together. The graft is not pretty. Miss T has a head circumference of 23-1/2-inches.

To get the flower I used the direction for the flower off of the Crochet Flower Headband. I had to watch several You-tube videos to figure out what the directions were trying to tell me. I thought these were the best of the bunch here and here for explaining how to crochet flowers. I used Bernat Satin in Camel for the two lighter parts of the flower.

While searching Ravelry for patterns found several patterns that looked interesting so I started with this one.

It is called Braided Ear Warmer by Melanie Woodley. It ended up being three inches wide so if I make it again I will add 4 to 6 stitches to make it about 4 inches wide. It was made using Red Heart's Heathers in Warm Red on US #8 needles. It's another one of those yarns I got on clearance from Michael’s for a buck. Tried to graft the ends again with even lousier results.

I needed to learn how to provisionally cast-on to solve the problem. So I went back to the Internet to research the problem. I ended up using the You-tube video from Helen Griffin’s channel oftroy for crochet cast-on that made sense.

Next up I decided to use a stitch pattern I found on knittingfool.com. I have used the stitch pattern in the past called Bamboo 2, with a modified crochet flower.

The white yarn was leftover from an afghan I had made in the past for Hubby. The white yarn is Wal-Mart’s mainstays 4-ply worsted and the variegated is some unknown worsted weight I received as a gift from a friend. I cast-on 18 stitches with the crocheted cast-on from Helen's site and knitted for about 19 inches. I wish I had steam-blocked it before I Kitchener stitched the ends together. The join was very nice looking. The flower was made with seven petals and I thought it only needed two layers.

When I found a skein of purple yarn in my stash I immediately thought of Miss S because she is going to Kansas State and the school color is purple. I needed to beef up the weight of the ear warmer because the yarn is a sport weight so a Fair Isle motif would add thickness. I thought some snowflakes would look great so out on the web I went to look for a Fair Isle pattern to use.

I found this pattern in Moth Heaven's web site. I eliminated the Fair Isle border after a false start with the white yarn I used in the ear warmer above. It pulled badly and curled horribly. I made a mad dash into town to buy a skein of sport weight white to work with. I redesigned my idea to include 2 ridges of garter stitch between each motif. I think it turned out really well. I did have to steam block it for it to lay flat.

The purple is Red Heart's Designer Sport in Grape and the white is Michael’s brand Loops & Threads.

Here is the chart I created in Excel to design and document what I did with the motif.

I cast-on 27 stitches using Helen's crochet cast-on, on US #6 needles. Then I knitted 2 rows of stockinette before I started my pattern. The 'Gar' stands for two ridges of garter stitch. The 'W' stands for the white yarn. Everything else was knitted in the main color purple. The 'P' and 'K' are the 2 rows of 2 x 2 ribbing that run up the sides of the ear warmer.

I have two more to make one in purple because that is Miss V's favorite color and one in blue for Sister Suzy.

You have a good day!

Judy

P.S. I lost everything to a power outage. I hope I have all my links back in. If I missed someone please let me know.

Bet you would like either one. They don't take up much space like quilting which makes them great traveling companions. LOL I can do a lot of ear warmers because they take less than a skein of yarn and I devote the day to them.